DCC production guide
Bake Cage and Projection Error Checklist
Direct answer: A bake is ready when the intended high-poly detail lands on the matching low-poly surface without ray misses, neighbor projection, cage intersections, or tangent mismatch. Treat cage setup as a controlled projection problem, not as a one-click export setting.
Tangent BasisBake Match NameCage OffsetEdge PaddingMatch by Mesh NameProjection Error
Cage offset decisions
Cage Offset should cover the largest intended high-to-low surface gap, but not so far that it captures bolts, panels, or nearby shells. Thin straps, screw heads, and intersecting hard-surface parts often need local cage edits. If the cage expands uniformly through a neighboring part, projection errors will appear as ghost detail or dark AO patches.
Match by mesh name
Bake Match Name or Match by Mesh Name prevents separate parts from projecting onto each other. Name high and low parts predictably, for example `panel_high` and `panel_low`, then verify the baker isolates matching pairs. This is especially important for floating bolts, layered armor, and mechanical assemblies with close surfaces.
Padding, seams, and tangent basis
Edge Padding extends baked pixels past UV borders so mips do not reveal empty background. Seam Artifact issues can also come from split normals, hard-edge placement, insufficient padding, or a Tangent Basis mismatch. If the target engine uses MikkTSpace, the baker and importer should agree before the normal map is approved.
Worked review example
A low-poly crate has floating screw heads and beveled panels. Use match-by-name for screws, edit the cage around recessed panel lines, bake normal and AO maps, then inspect the result under neutral lighting in the engine. Approval requires a cage screenshot, bake settings, map preview, and target import result.
Multilingual production terms
Use this table when a brief, fix request, or delivery note must be understood across Chinese, English, and Japanese production reviews for Bake Cage and Projection Error.
| 中文 | English | 日本語 | Workflow usage note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 切线基准 | Tangent Basis | タンジェント基準 | Confirm baker and engine use the same convention; mismatch creates normal-map seams. |
| 烘焙匹配名 | Bake Match Name | ベイク用マッチ名 | Use name matching to isolate floating bolts, layered plates, and close surfaces. |
| 笼子偏移 | Cage Offset | ケージオフセット | Set from the largest intended gap; locally edit thin parts and tight corners. |
| 边缘填充 | Edge Padding | エッジパディング | Extend baked pixels past UV borders so reduced mips do not reveal background. |
| 按网格名称匹配 | Match by Mesh Name | メッシュ名で一致 | Pair high and low by suffix so projection does not leak across parts. |
| 投射错误 | Projection Error | 投影エラー | Diagnose ray distance, cage intersection, and neighbor capture separately. |
| 接缝伪影 | Seam Artifact | シームアーティファクト | Inspect split normals, hard-edge placement, padding, and tangent space. |
Related pages and next step
Open SEELE AI workspaceFAQ
Why do bake details appear on the wrong part?
The cage may be too large or match-by-name may be disabled, allowing rays to hit neighboring high-poly geometry.
Is more edge padding always better?
More padding helps mips, but it cannot fix wrong UV splits, bad projection, or tangent mismatch.
What is a projection error?
It is any incorrect transfer from high poly to low poly, such as skewed details, ray misses, neighbor capture, or cage intersection artifacts.
When should I rebake instead of painting over artifacts?
Rebake when the artifact follows geometry, seams, cage direction, or tangent basis. Painting over it hides the process error but rarely survives revisions.